What happens when entire communities are uprooted by conflict or development? And how can planners shape the transition so that residents hold on to their livelihoods, social ties, and sense of security?

Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in the southern Indian city of Kochi, where a series of mega developments has reshaped the city and its suburbs – and displaced many residents. In their 2015 paper “Changing Cities and Changing Lives: Development Induced Displacement in Kochi, Kerala”, researchers with the Centre for Development Studies and Union Christian College examine the lives of those uprooted by development. Through surveys and interviews, they found that while poverty, inequality, violence, and physical insecurity did not emerge as major concerns, various forms of state violence — from negligence and inefficiency to brute force —caused a great deal of unnecessary suffering for the displaced.